The Eiffel Tower I
July 22nd, 2008 by Benji Mast
How many unique pictures can you take of one landmark? I wondered, really wondered, if I could get an original photograph of the the tower. Seriously, how many pictures have been take of the Eiffel Tower over the years? Thousands? No doubt. Billions probably.
Nevertheless, like the millions of shutterbugs before me, I tried anyway. I got up very early and tried anyway. I got up very early with my cool bro, elbowed my way onto a very crowded subway card and tried anyway.
To call the subway cars that we rode, “very crowded” is probably the understatement of the year. We caught the first train, on the second stop from the end of the line, and the seats were all taken and the car was nearly full, or so I thought. People continued to pack themselves in as we made stop after stop. It grew from 360 degree elbow-brushing to 360 degree sardine packing. It was tight; tighter than I have ever been enclosed with a crowd of strangers.
Not Opened Yet
Surviving
These women caught my attention. Probably immigrants, barely holding down a poorly paying job in the city. Do they know each other? Do they know anyone else in Paris? Are they alcoholics? Do they have Christ?
Sad Young Lady
Happy Young Men
I never thought of the contrast between these two pictures till I started titling them. 
The Underbelly
Tall, Slender, and Handsome
Blue and Green
“…the eye of the beholder.”
I really think the tower is elegant, timeless, and yes, beuatiful.
The above photo has been edited in photoshop. However, it is real. I really took this picture with the tower reflected in Hans’ eye, with Hans’ 60mm 2.8 macro.
Awesome! you’re sooo good!
That’s my eye shot with my lens, by the way!
btw, can you list the post processing you did on my eye? That’s not exactly my natural eye color…
sweet pix! makes me wanna go back again- loved loved loved the eiffel tower! i think you did a great job at getting some pretty original shots!
The picture of the eye is awesome! I didn’t catch on at first that the Eiffel tower is in the background.
Great job at getting original shots! I love that picture of the eye. I’m kinda doubting there’s too many shots of the eiffel tower like that. Very cool idea.
Could you list in general terms each adjustment layer you used?
Hans:
To the best of my memory I used only about 4 layers. I discarded the PSD.
A global levels layer.
A selective black and white layer, opacity 85%ish.
A smart sharpen layer.
Two selective levels, one for a bit of a vignette, and one to reduce prominence of veins in the bottom left
I did not mess with color balance. I think the red you see in the eye is reflected skin that is looks more saturated due to increased contrast with the levels layer.
SWEET! I love the last picture! I thought Lord of the Rings as soon as i saw it.
The last pic should be called “the eyeffel tower.”
Uh oh, Benji! Looks like you got two better titles than your original now! “Eiffel of My Eye” and “Eyeffel Tower”! *evil grin*
Thanks for laying out how you Photoshopped.
And thanks for knocking down those veins. It’s bad enough the Trippy compared me to the Evil Eye of Mordor without evil-looking, ridged, bloody red veins.
lol. i was actually thinking Frodo with the Dark Tower of Barad-dur reflected in his eye.